Sylvia's Scenario

This week I've been preparing for Nick and Sachiyo's return from Japan and decided to make Japanese Milk Bread.  This is the kind of bread they eat in Japan and it's very different from American bread.  Nick sent me some lists to help get his house ready for them; one list was for groceries.  He didn't have bread on his grocery list, but I decided to make some bread for them anyway - Japanese style, just to surprise them. I first heard about Japanese Milk Bread here in Seattle when it started showing up at Farmer's Markets in 2017.  Locally, it's made by  Ayako & Family  who sell over a dozen varieties of wild, heritage and heirloom plum jam and then they started selling the bread to go with their jam.  People flocked to it!  Nick and Sachiyo don't really eat that much bread but when we're in Japan, we do eat their bread which is a white, puffy-kind of bread.  I never thought much of it but it's the only kind of bread you see in Japan.  I

Today, we said goodbye to our little cat, Crusty.  She was the last of our Idaho animal menagerie that we received as a kitten from our neighbor who found her in her office building's parking lot.  Our neighbor knew we had kitten formula and bottles, so she brought her over for us to take care of.  She ended up being with us for sixteen years.  Lately, she had been suffering from  kidney disease but yesterday she took a turn for the worse and we knew it was time to say goodbye.  In fact, last week I got "the talk" from our vet about when to decide to end her suffering but I just didn't think she was that bad yet.  The photo above was just two days ago when she was still acting very normal, hanging around with us and doing the four critical activities of eating, drinking, pooping and peeing.   She was even eyeing the birds and going into that hunting mode.  But yesterday, she quit the four critical activities, just over night.  We had elected not to give IV fluids l

We started our Fourth of July weekend today with a barbecue after Lauren let us know she was off today and wanted to come over for a run at Alki beach which, to our delight, also means staying for dinner.   I had bought these beef ribs at the store last week and I froze them in hopes that the weather would soon improve for a barbecue.  The weather hasn't really improved but we're barbecuing anyway.  It's known to be chilly around here on the Fourth and so it is again this year.  Bummer.  But tonight was still a great summer dinner.  Bruce cooked the ribs the same way he cooks his spare ribs  and they turned out great.  We all went down to Alki beach and Lauren and Bruce jogged about 4 miles, while I walked.  Then we came home to start our Fourth of July weekend with these perfectly cooked ribs. Along with baked beans and corn-on-the-cob, I made this salad from Smitten Kitchen  that everyone loved.  It's a nice crunchy salad perfect for summer.